Friday, November 28, 2003

Dying to eat. Smoke from cooking food kills millions

The BBC's Alex Kirby reports that research conducted by the Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) has found that in the developing world 1 person dies every 20 seconds due to smoke inhilation, as a result of using wood, charcoal, vegetation + dung to cook food in poorly ventilated conditions.

This is more people than die of malaria, and the result of people who live + cook in huts breathing in huge levels of smoke - approx. equivalent to that produced by two packets of cigarettes per day.